Fayette County government workers

will see their salaries increase an average of 5.85 percent under a new

pay and classification plan under consideration tomorrow.

County commissioners will consider

the plan at their regular business meeting, 7 p.m. at the County Administrative

Complex.

"It's generally a very

good study," said commission Chairman Greg Dunn during the group's

workshop meeting last week. "It shows we have a lot of adjustments

to make in order to treat everybody fairly."

Developed by consultants Management

of America Inc., the plan would increase the county's payroll by $1.27

million from the current $21.7 million. With benefits, the total cost

to the county will be almost $1.5 million a year, but the current fiscal

year is half over, so the effect in FY2002 would be $726,728. County staff

officials are not recommending making the changes retroactive for the

entire fiscal year.

The majority of the increases

would be in public safety positions. "They determined that it's in

those areas that we are under the market most severely," said Mark

Pullium, county finance director.

Commissioners last year decided

to hire Management of America to study salaries and job classifications

in surrounding counties after rejecting a similar study conducted by the

Atlanta Regional Commission.

ARC's study, which would have

resulted in higher salary increases than the one now under consideration,

included all counties in the metropolitan Atlanta area, and commissioners

said they didn't think it was realistic to compare Fayette's pay structure

with those in Gwinnett, Fulton and other large counties, or those too

far away.

The idea of such a study is

to prevent too much turnover by keeping salaries competitive with those

in both government and private industry in surrounding areas.

The firm presented its findings

last week, and during their meeting Wednesday, commissioners said they

had questions that needed to be answered. But at Commissioner Linda Wells'

urging, other commissioners promised to take action on the plan at Thursday's

meeting.

"It's time for us to step

up to the plate and proceed along those lines," Wells said.

Commissioner A.G. VanLandingham

said he was ready to approve the plan last week. "The study was fair,

equitable and past due," he said.

If implemented the recommended

increases will be in addition to the regular cost of living and merit

increases approved as part of the 2002 budget.

The plan also would change

the way the annual raises are implemented, doing away with the old "step"

system in which workers were given small step increases every year in

addition to the COLA and merit increases.

"Every position will now

be classified in a range and the employee will move through that range

based on COLA and merit," said finance director Pullium. The new

system, he said, "will be easier to administer and much less cumbersome."

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